The present invention relates to picked-up-sound reproducing methods and apparatus for picking up a sound present in one sound field and reproducing the picked-up sound in another sound field, and more particularly relates to an improved picked-up-sound reproducing method and apparatus which achieve an enhanced sense of unity (togetherness) and connection between two separate sound fields.
As apparatus for picking up sounds picked up in one sound field and reproducing the picked-up sounds in another sound field, teleconference systems, such as TV conference systems, have been in actual use.
The conventionally-known TV conference systems are designed to adjust reproduced sound volumes in a soundreproducing field irrespective of sound volumes in a soundpicking-up field, and thus can not create an effect of a “virtual conference table” achieving a feeling as if the separate sound fields were united and connected. Therefore, the conventionally-known TV conference systems can not provide a sufficient sense of realism achieving a feel as if people or participants in the two separate sound fields were in a same conference room, and it is difficult to perform natural sound transfer among a great many people without entailing unnatural feelings. Further, sound volume adjustment has to be performed manually so that sounds can be reproduced with optimal volumes. In addition, because conditions for positioning microphones and speakers relative to each other are not fixed in advance, the sound volume adjustment is subject to limitations and inconveniences, such as a howling noise, depending on the positioning conditions.